Pfau made contact with a family member of the Saginaw County man suspected to be the pilot and learned that the man last visited a dental office in Flushing Township. Pfau obtained the dental records on the morning of Monday, July 8, and said a forensic dentist in Saginaw County would examine the records to confirm the pilot's identity.

The department will release the victim's name once his identity has been confirmed, Pfau said.

Police believe they know who the pilot was, Pfau said, because he owns the truck that was parked at the hangar where the plane was stored before take-off. The man also owns the plane and the hangar, in Chesaning, Pfau said.

The dental records will be used to provide "absolute confirmation" of the pilot's identity, Pfau said.

"If you can't confirm through visual, through scars, marks and tattoos or have a family member confirm or use prior photos, you have to go the dental route," Pfau said.

"We'll use it to confirm, like a fingerprint, that the exact set of teeth made the record."

The Federal Aviation Administration was looking at the plane wreckage, stored in a hangar, on Monday, July 8, and will provide an opinion of why the plane crashed, Pfau said, though the FAA is not investigating the crash because the plane was not required to be registered with the agency.

The FAA would lead the investigation if the crash involved a registered plane, Pfau said, noting he did not have additional information about the aircraft.

"Because it's not registered, [the death investigation is] treated like a snowmobile fatality or a farm implement fatality," Pfau said.

The aircraft crashed into a soccer field behind Chesaning Middle School about 6:30 p.m. Saturday, July 6, according to Saginaw County Central Dispatch. The school is at 431 N. Fourth in the village of Chesaning, a community of about 2,300 located 15 miles southwest of Saginaw.

Howard Nixon Airport Manager Gerald Morford said he believes the plane that crashed was a JDP Mini Max 1600 R.